Charles Raymond Blackman OBE (12 August 1928 – 20 August 2018) was an Australian painter, known for his Schoolgirl, Avonsleigh, and Alice in Wonderland series of the 1950s. He was a member of the Antipodeans, a collective of Melbourne painters that included Arthur Boyd, David Boyd, John Brack, Robert Dickerson, John Perceval, and Clifton Pugh. He was married for 27 years to author, essayist, poet, librettist, and arts patron Barbara Blackman.
Blackman, born on 12 August 1928 in Sydney, left school at 13 and worked as an illustrator for The Sun newspaper while attending night classes at East Sydney Technical College (1943–46), though he was primarily self-taught. He was later awarded an honorary doctorate. He gained recognition after moving to Melbourne in the mid-1940s, where he befriended Joy Hester, John Perceval, and Laurence Hope, and received support from critic and art patron John Reed. His early Schoolgirl and Alice series garnered critical acclaim, the latter being Blackman's interpretation of Lewis Carroll's iconic character. During the painting of the Alice series, Blackman also worked as a cook at a café owned by art dealer Georges Mora and his wife, fellow artist Mirka Mora.
In 1959, he signed the Antipodean Manifesto, a statement protesting the dominance of abstract expressionism. The manifesto's signatories became known as the Antipodeans Group. Blackman's own work is characterised by dreamlike imagery imbued with mystery and apprehension. In 1960, he and his family resided in London after Blackman received a Helena Rubenstein travelling scholarship, returning to settle in Sydney five and a half years later. In 1970, he relocated to Paris after being granted an atelier studio in the Cité internationale des arts. He spent a year there concurrently with John Coburn and frequently returned, finding enduring inspiration in Paris.
After 27 years of marriage, Blackman divorced Barbara in 1978, largely due to his struggles with alcoholism. He then married the young artist Genevieve de Couvreur, a 19-year-old acquaintance of his children. She divorced him after eight years as his alcoholism worsened. In 1989, he married Victoria Bower, whom he also later divorced. He fathered six children—Auguste, Christabel, Barnaby, Beatrice, Felix, and Axiom—most of whom pursued careers in art and music.
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